Are Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Information Labels Well-Targeted

Summary

We will study the extent to which soft drink information labels -- designed to curb unhealthy consumption -- are well-targeted to the most biased consumers.The study team will deploy novel methods for evaluating the targeting properties of information labels via an incentive-compatible online shopping experiment. At a high-level, we will ask whether the treatment effects of the information labels are concentrated on individuals with the biggest self-control problems and with the least knowledge of nutrition. We will first use the methodology from Allcott et al. (2019) to estimate the internality for each participant. We will then have participants make shopping decisions for soft drinks, first absent any information labels and then, for those not in the control group, in the presence of an information label. The within-subject design of the soft drinks experiment will allow us to estimate how the effects of the labels covary with consumers' internalities, and thus to determine whether the labels are well-targeted.

Conditions

• Soft Drink Consumption
• Sugar-sweetened Beverages
• Information Labels

Interventions

OTHER

Nutrition Facts

The nutritional information label for each beverage is enlarged.

OTHER

Text Warning

The health risks of sugary beverages are communicated to subjects using words/text and simple images.

OTHER

Graphic Warning

The health risks of sugary beverages are communicated to subjects using a combination of words/text and graphic images/photographs.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, Berkeley

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institute on Aging (NIA)

  collaborator NIH

• National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Dmitry Taubinsky, PhD · UC Berkeley and NBER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-10-18

Primary Completion

2021-12-22

Completion

2021-12-22

Countries

• United States

Study Locations